Dispensing container

ABSTRACT

A dispensing container for flat objects ( 1 ), such as boxcutter blades, includes a container body ( 2 ) in which is housed a sliding support ( 3 ) designed to move between a rear face ( 4 ) and a front face ( 5 ) of the container, for which the objects are stacked between the sliding support ( 3 ) and the front face ( 5 ) of the container, the sliding support pushing the objects ( 1 ) against the front face under the action of at least one elastic element ( 6, 6′ ), the elastic element being designed to pull the sliding support from the rear face to the front face of the container.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the invention

The present invention relates to dispensing containers such as dispensing containers for blades of knives of the boxcutter type.

2. Prior art

There are dispensing containers of the parallelepipedal type having an upper face provided with a window and a side face provided with a slit for which the window makes it possible to push the objects which are to exit via the slit.

This type of container exists in particular as a dispensing container for razor blades.

In this type of container, the stacked blades are pressed against the upper face of the container by a spring device.

One drawback of these containers is that, on one hand, spring devices are relatively bulky and that, on the other hand, these spring devices have limited travel for their bulkiness, which makes it impossible to place a large number of blades in a small container.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has the object of compensating for this problem and providing a compact container which can accommodate a large number of products to be distributed.

To do this, the present invention proposes a dispensing container for flat objects, such as boxcutter blades, which comprises a container body in which is housed a sliding support designed to move between a rear face and a front face of the container body, for which the objects are stacked between the sliding support and the front face of the container, the sliding support pushing the objects against said front face under the action of at least two elastic means, for which said at least two elastic means each comprise a forward branch and a return branch, the free end of the forward branch latching onto an anchor point of the container, the free end of the return branch latching onto an anchor point of the sliding support, the forward branch and the return branch being connected via a spindle or a pulley positioned close to the front face of the container, the elastic means being designed to pull the sliding support from the rear face to the front face of the container.

Advantageously, the latching position of the elastic means on the container body and the elongation ratio of the elastic means are such that the movement of the support from the rear face of the container to the front face of the container remains within the elastic elongation travel of the elastic means.

According to a preferred embodiment, the elastic means are coil springs designed to roll on the pulleys or slide on the spindles.

According to a particular embodiment, the body of the container comprises guides for holding the stacked objects.

Advantageously, said elastic means are positioned in side housings of the container along two opposite lateral sides of the sliding support.

The container comprising an upper face and a lower face which are opposite and parallel and are delimited by the front face and the rear face is advantageously such that at least one of said upper and lower faces comprises a slit for the distribution of objects, along the front face of the container.

According to a first embodiment, the front face comprises a cutout for pushing the objects which are pressed against the front face out of the container, through the distribution slit.

According to a second embodiment, the front face comprises a means for pushing the objects out of the container through the distribution slit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent upon reading the following description of a non-limiting exemplary embodiment of the invention, with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view from above of an exemplary embodiment of a container according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the open container from FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the container from FIG. 1, open with its cover;

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of a container body with sliding support and springs as seen from a first point of view;

FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of a container body with sliding support and springs as seen from a second point of view;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a detail of means for removing the objects according to a variant of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The container of the invention is represented ready for use in FIG. 1.

It comprises an upper face 14, a rear face 4 and a front face 5, a lower face 15 and side faces 20, 21.

According to the example shown, the front face 5 comprises a cutout 17 and the upper face 14 comprises a slit 16 along the front face 5 and in communication with the cutout 17.

The upper face is part of a cover which clips in with a container body 2 as shown in FIG. 3.

The cover comprises four side faces, to with the rear face 4, the front face 5, side faces 20, 21 and said upper face 14.

The dispensing container of the invention is intended for distributing flat objects 1, such as boxcutter blades 1.

It comprises a sliding support 3 or carriage, represented removed from the container in FIG. 2, by means of which the blades can be pushed towards the front face 5. The sliding support is accommodated in the container and is guided so as to push against the blades.

According to the example of FIG. 3, the container body 2 comprises front and rear counter-faces, respectively 5′ and 4′, which face the front and rear faces of the cover. It is however conceivable, within the scope of the invention, to design the cover without its front and rear faces and in this case the front and rear counter-faces of the body of the container become the front and rear faces of the container. It is also possible to design the container body without counter-faces, although in this case filling the container with objects is not simple as the objects have nothing to press against until the cover is mounted.

For the sake of simplicity, the front counter-faces 5′ will be assimilated with the front faces 5, the grouping of front and rear counter-faces and faces forming, ultimately, double-thickness front and rear faces.

In the case of the example shown in FIG. 2, the objects 1 are thus stacked between the sliding support 3 and the front face 5′ of the body of the container.

One noteworthy aspect of the invention is that the sliding support is designed to move between the rear face 4′ and the front face 5′ of the container body and that no space is lost between the support and the rear face 4 of the container. Indeed, according to the example shown, the sliding support pushes the objects 1 against the front face under the action of two elastic means 6, 6′ which each comprise a forward branch 6 a and a return branch 6 b and which are accommodated in spaces 13, 13′ on the lateral sides 20, 21 of the container.

A first end or free end 61 of the forward branch of the elastic means latches onto an anchor point 7, 7′ of the container and begins the forward branch 6 a.

A second end or free end of the return branch 62 of the elastic means latches onto an anchor point 8, 8′ of the sliding support and terminates the return branch 6 b.

The forward branch 6 a and the return branch 6 b are connected via a spindle or a pulley 9 positioned close to the front face 5 of the container.

It is well understood that the elastic means are continuous and that the concepts of forward branch and return branch are merely geometric representations, it being possible for one part of an elastic means to be part of the forward branch or of the return branch depending on the tension of the elastic means.

According to this construction, the elastic means are designed to pull the sliding support from the rear face to the front face of the container, without its length of travel being limited by the length of the relaxed elastic means. This is made possible by the fact that the forward branch can house the length of one or both of the relaxed elastic means. In particular, the elastic elongation ratio of one or both of the elastic means and their latching position on the container body 2 may be calculated such that the movement of the support from the rear face of the container to the front face of the container remains included in the elastic elongation travel of the elastic means.

An elongation ratio of preferably at least 2.5 to 3 appears to be usable within the scope of the invention.

The elastic means may in particular be elastic bands made from natural or synthetic rubber or, as in the example shown, be coil springs, these elastic means being designed to slide on the spindle 9 which, in the case of coil springs, will be realized for example with a diameter which is sufficiently large to avoid twisting the coils of the springs.

As shown in FIG. 3, the container comprises rails 11 designed to serve as guides for the objects and in particular rails of variable dimensions and position may be provided depending on the shape of the objects.

In this case, the rails 11 support the blade 1 at a portion 100 which is set back from the edge 101 of the blade.

If the rails do not serve as guides for the sliding support, the groove 12 in which the rails move is made wider than the spacing of the rails so as not to hamper the movement of the sliding support.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 more particularly, the container body comprises internal sidewalls creating side housings 13, 13′ in which the elastic means 6, 6′ are positioned. These housings extend along two opposite lateral sides of the sliding support.

The walls 13 a, 13 b serve as guiding means for the sliding support in cooperation with the side faces of said support, these side faces bearing the pegs 8, 8′ receiving the end of the springs 6, 6′.

On one side, the height of the internal sidewall 13 a is limited in order to allow the passage, into the housing 13, of a first peg 8 for securing a first elastic means 6 on the support. On the second side, the wall comprises a groove 131 for the passage of the peg 8′ shown in FIG. 5.

According to this embodiment, the pegs are offset in terms of height such that the attachments of the springs on the pegs 8, 8′ of the support and on the pegs 7, 7′ of the container body are inverted, such that a better balance of forces on the sliding support 3 is possible.

As seen above, the container comprises an upper face 14 and a lower face 15 which are opposite and parallel and the upper face is, according to the example shown, created in a cover of the container and the rear face is a base of the container body 2.

The objects stacked between the support and the front face are retained by these upper and lower faces or, as in the example, by the upper face and the guide rails 11.

The slit 16, which extends along the front face 5 of the container, constitutes an object distribution slit.

The cutout 17 described above, created in the front face 5 of the cover and the front counter-face 5′ of the container body, makes it possible to push the objects pressing under the front face out of the container through the distribution slit 16 as shown in FIG. 1. According to this example, and for safety reasons, the blades 1 are positioned such that their attachment portion, which is not sharp, is on the side of the cutout 17.

In an alternative embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the front face comprises a means 18 for pushing the objects from the top of the pile of objects created between the support 3 and the front face 5 out of the container through the distribution slit 16′ which in this case is placed in a side face of the container.

In this case, the pushing means 18 is for example a sliding pushing device which is or is not recalled by a spring. This solution, which is more complex to realize, has the advantage that the objects need not be pushed using one's fingers.

The container of the invention is compact and one exemplary embodiment is a container measuring 80×80×20 mm and capable of holding 100 blades of the deburring type, the sliding support being actuated in such a case by coil springs of 4 mm in diameter which have a distance between latching spindles of 45 mm and are designed to reach a length of 140 mm with no plastic deformation.

These dimensions are of course given purely indicatively, it being possible to realize numerous variants of the box of the invention. 

1- Dispensing container for flat objects (1), such as boxcutter blades, which comprises a container body (2) in which is housed a sliding support (3) designed to move between a rear face (4′) and a front face (5′) of the container body, for which the objects are stacked between the sliding support (3) and the front face (5′) of the container, the sliding support pushing the objects (1) against said front face under the action of at least two elastic means (6, 6′), characterized in that said at least two elastic means each comprise a forward branch (6 a) and a return branch (6 b), the free end (61) of the forward branch latching onto an anchor point (7, 7′) of the container, the free end of the return branch (62) latching onto an anchor point (8, 8′) of the sliding support, the forward branch (6 a) and the return branch (6 b) being connected via a spindle or a pulley (9) positioned close to the front face (5) of the container, the elastic means being designed to pull the sliding support from the rear face to the front face of the container. 2- Container according to claim 1, for which the latching position of the elastic means on the container body (2) and the elongation ratio of the elastic means are such that the movement of the support from the rear face of the container to the front face of the container remains within the elastic elongation travel of the elastic means. 3- Container according to claim 1, for which the elastic means (6) are coil springs designed to roll on the pulleys or slide on the spindles (9). 4- Container according to claim 1, for which the body of the container (2) comprises guides (11) for holding the stacked objects. 5- Container according to claim 1, for which said elastic means (6, 6′) are positioned in side housings (13, 13′) of the container along two opposite lateral sides of the sliding support. 6- Container according to claim 1, comprising an upper face (14), or cover, and a lower face (15), forming a base, which are opposite and parallel and are delimited by the front face (5) and the rear face (4), for which at least one of said upper and lower faces comprises a slit (16) for the distribution of objects (1), along the front face (5) of the container. 7- Container according to claim 6, for which the objects are pushed by the carriage pressing against the front face, the latter comprising a cutout (17) for pushing out of the container the objects which are pressed against the front face, through the distribution slit (16). 8- Container according to claim 1, comprising, at the front face, a means (18) for pushing the objects out of the container through a distribution slit (16′).
 9. Container according to claim 2, for which the elastic means (6) are coil springs designed to roll on the pulleys or slide on the spindles (9).
 10. Container according to claim 2, for which the body of the container (2) comprises guides (11) for holding the stacked objects.
 11. Container according to claim 3, for which the body of the container (2) comprises guides (11) for holding the stacked objects.
 12. Container according to claim 2, for which said elastic means (6, 6′) are positioned in side housings (13, 13′) of the container along two opposite lateral sides of the sliding support.
 13. Container according to claim 2, comprising an upper face (14), or cover, and a lower face (15), forming a base, which are opposite and parallel and are delimited by the front face (5) and the rear face (4), for which at least one of said upper and lower faces comprises a slit (16) for the distribution of objects (1), along the front face (5) of the container.
 14. Container according to claim 2, comprising, at the front face, a means (18) for pushing the objects out of the container through a distribution slit (16′). 